RE: A Cultural Climate that Forgives Weakness and Punishes Strength
Your focus on strength regarding evolution is subtlety incorrect, as many have been in the past. It is adaptedness, or fitness which is what evolution optimises, not necessarily strength. This is where proponents of social darwinism fail in their argument, in that they do not actually stick to a comprehensive interpretation of the mechanisms.
If you were, you would recognize that in the social sphere, people are doing what is most advantageous to them within the culture. Furthermore they strive to improve their advantages. It's simple to say but difficult to break down, because we are the only beings on the planet who can plan really really far ahead and do things which seem not to be in our benefit (and may actually not be, if we got it wrong) which pay off in other ways. We play social games, some of which appear quite unrooted in reality, and they are! But that does not mean that winning them does not confer tangible advantages to winners.
In fact what you are talking about is something which is and has always been against the grain of our basic evolutionary tools, and that is the transcendent. That goes all the way from aspirational thinking to high spirituality.
Dinner course ordering, school discipline and standardized work are far more interesting than you make out, and far more based on the historically overbearing influence of the aristocracy, military and state, as opposed to any human centered wellness.
Personally I am a Stoic and I promote those kinds of values which are not far from the ones you espouse here. That is, except the arrogance of the strong. I think it is wise to embrace whatever people have to offer, and that can be good for everyone.
Lastly, I agree with the part of your argument which is against fetishizing weakness as somehow virtuous. However for me this also extends to not fetishizing strength. Being strong is not a virtue, it is a gift.
This is definitely an interesting way of looking at things. To clarify, when I use the term 'strength', I myself am including a great number of the characteristics you mention as well, sorry if that wasn't as clear in the writing. Strength for me is anything antithetical to weakness, and weakness I define as resistance to adapt, laziness, self-contentedness, etc., but I get where you're going with the fetishization. I also don't think being strong is a virtue, but striving to be strong is, and absolutely more virtuous than the empty claims of recognizing and respecting weakness.
Thanks for the quasi post/comment @personz!
My point is that the strength / weakness dichotomy as presented is not consistent with evolutionary theory. In fact your definition of weakness is far more akin to sickness. Weakness is better defined in explicit comparison to strength. To be clear I think the danger in interpreting your writing on the topic is that sickness should be punished as weakness instead of cured is possible, or quantised if not. If that sounds harsh, it's unfortunately the only option for all living things.
Let me be clear about something else. Disgust is the proper response to sickness. So the so-called "weakness" should be deeply uncomfortable and healthy people will and should feel instinctually compelled to get distance from them. For our large imaginative brains that also translates into social and intellectual distance, which I think is actually not that helpful. Still, very understandable and correct on one level.
Striving to be well is I think the better goal. That will encompass strength in whatever your capacity is but not made a narrow goal of it, or elevate might too high. Respecting people who are weak is totally fine. Treating the sick with compassion is virtuous. But expecting everyone to inhabit the same space as the infected is dangerous, actually dangerous. Right minded people cannot do this, and fortunately most people are right minded.
On calling my first response a quasi-post, thank you! If you look at my blog it seems like I'm not really posting much any more but I've been getting involved in detailed discussions. It's a pity that the UI doesn't in some way show epic comments prominently on your blog / profile. 🤔 Maybe there's an improvement to be made there.